the corps which had so nobly won the heights pressed on for further
achievements. The heights were left behind. Brooks' division, which now
took the lead, had advanced as far as Salem Church, on the
Chancellorsville pike, when, instead of meeting any portion of Hooker's
army, a few shells from rebel guns warned the division of the presence
of the enemy.

A dense thicket was in front, and Bartlett's brigade, which had the
advance, was deployed to skirmish and ascertain the position of the
concealed foe. Presently, having fallen upon a strong line of
skirmishers, the brigade was formed in line of battle; the
Twenty-seventh New York on the right, then the Fifth Maine, then the One
Hundred and Twenty-first New York, and on the left the Ninety-sixth
Pennsylvania; the Sixteenth New York holding the skirmish line in front.
General Bartlett advanced his line to the thicket, the Sixteenth driving
the rebel skirmishers, the brigade following closely. At the edge of the
thicket General Bartlett halted the line, but being ordered by General
Brooks to advance rapidly, he pushed on again.

Advancing through the thicket about thirty rods, the brigade suddenly
found itself face to face with a rebel line. The confederates were lying
down in a road which traversed the thicket; and, when the Union line was
within twenty yards, they suddenly discharged a volley, which, had it
been well aimed, must have almost annihilated the brigade; but the fire
was returned with effect, and presently, the confederates were glad to
leave the road, which was almost filled with their dead and wounded, and
seek shelter behind rifle pits. The rifle pits were but a few yards in
rear of the road, and here a very strong force was posted. The Union
forces occupied the road, and directed their fire against the works; but
the rebel fire cut down their unprotected ranks like grass before the
scythe. For fifteen minutes the gallant regiments endured this murderous
fire, and then fell back in good order, having lost, within twenty
minutes, nearly seven hundred men; of whom two hundred and seventy-three
were from the One Hundred and Twenty-first New York.

The New Jersey brigade, and the whole division, had by this time been
brought into action, and great slaughter was made in almost every
regiment. Newton's division was also fiercely engaged on the right,
Wheaton's brigade holding its position only by the most stubborn
fighting. The enemy having forced the First di